Ethical perspectives on data and software sharing in the sciences: A research agenda

Data and software are critical components of scientific work. Increased data and software sharing promises many benefits for science. Many stakeholders are building infrastructure and implementing policies to promote sharing. However, sharing remains rare in practice. Attention must be paid to researchers' ethical perspectives on sharing to fully realize the promise of sharing and promote greater circulation of data and software and better uptake of infrastructure for data and software curation. This research presents an agenda for researching these perspectives, including characterizing and accounting for researchers' perspectives; examining how these perspectives shape decisions related to data and software sharing; and understanding how and why differences in perspectives arise and are contested, negotiated, and resolved in multidisciplinary scientific collaboration. This agenda will enable stakeholders to identify and resolve differences in ethical perspectives, and develop policies, infrastructures, and education that support existing ethical perspectives, and cultivate better ethical practices.